Movie/TV Reviews

-Susan Granger’s review of “The Order”

 

Based on a true story that delves into America’s scourge of white supremacy, “The Order” stars Jude Law as a veteran FBI agent who stumbles on a virulent hate group operating in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s.

When grizzled Terry Husk (Law) is dispatched to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 1983, his assignment is to investigate a series of bank and armored-car robberies, along with a synagogue bombing and murder of Denver talk-show host Alan Berg.

Working with conscientous local cop Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), Husk discovers undeniable links to a secluded mountain cult called Aryan Nations, headed by cautious Rev. Richard Butler (Victor Slezak).

While Aryan Nations believers’ goal is to seize control of the United States government through duly elected officials, an extremist splinter group, dubbed ‘The Order’, headed by charismatic zealot Robert “Bob” J. Mathews (Nicholas Hoult), is determined to use violence/domestic terrorism to overthrow it.

His motto is “Victory forever, defeat never!”

As a sidebar, Bob seems to have two families: his submissive wife Debbie (Alison Oliver), mother of their adopted son, and very pregnant mistress (Odessa Young).

Adapted by Zach Baylin from “The Silent Brotherhood” by Kevin Flynn & Gary Gerhardt, reporters for the “Rocky Mountain News,” with Australian director/producer Justin Kurzel, the character of Terry Husk is actually a fictional composite of several law enforcement officers who took part in the investigation.

What makes this crime thriller timely is that many considered the concept of a neo-Nazi movement with tacit presidential approval just a fantasy until there were January 6, 2021, photos of Capitol rioters – fanatic Proud Boys and Oath Keepers – waving copies of “The Turner Diaries,” the 1978 novel that became the foundational text for white nationalists, and Donald Trump was reelected.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Order” is a cautionary 6, available to buy/rent on Prime Video.

Susan Granger’s column: Where to see the Oscar-nominated Top 10:

 

Watching the Oscars on ABC on Sunday, March 2, is always more fun if you’ve seen the 10 Best Picture nominees, particularly since nominees for other Awards are often linked to many of these releases. Here’s where you can find them:

“Anora” focuses on a sex worker who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Writer/director Sean Baker is nominated, along with actress Mikey Madison and actor Yura Borisov. It’ available for rent and/or purchase on Prime Video, and watch for it to stream on Hulu.

“The Brutalist” is a study of Holocaust immigrant trauma and antisemitism. Director Brady Corbet is nominated, along with actors Adrien Brody & Guy Pearce and actress Felicity Jones, plus Cinematography, Editing & Production Design. It’s playing in theaters now and will eventually stream on Max.

“A Complete Unknown” charts Bob Dylan’s rise as a folk singer from 1961-1965, when he traded his acoustic guitar to go electric. Director/writer James Mangold is nominated, along with actors Timothee Chalamet & Edward Norton and actress Monica Barbaro, plus Costume Design & Sound. It’s playing in theaters before streaming on Hulu.

“Conclave” revolves around the election of a new Pope. Actor Ralph Fiennes is nominated, along with actress Isabella Rossellini, plus Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design & Original Score. It’s currently available to rent/buy on Peacock and Prime Video.

“Dune: Part Two” is the sequel to 2021’s “Dune,” picking up as Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) unties with the Fremen against House Harkonnen. Also nominated for Cinematography, Production Design, Sound & Visual Effects, it’s streaming on Max & Netflix and available to rent/buy on Prime Video.

“Emilia Perez” is a musical exploration of trans-identity as a Mexican cartel boss transitions into a woman.  Trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon is nominated along with Director, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Sound, International Film, Makeup & Hairstyling.  Streaming exclusively on Netflix.

“I’m Still Here” profiles a mother/activist whose husband – a dissident politician – disappears during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Along with Best International Feature, actress Fernanda Torres is nominated. No streaming information is available but since it’s Sony Pictures Classics, it will probably be on Netflix.

“Nickel Boys” is a historical drama set at a racist reform school in 1960s Florida. Also nominated as Adapted Screenplay, it’s in theaters and will soon be availanle to buy/rent on Pime Video and streaming on MGM+.

“The Substance” finds an aging celebrity taking a black-market drug to create a younger, hotter version of herself. Director Coralie Fargeat is nominated, along with actress Demi Moore, Original Screenplay, Makeup & Hairstyling. Streaming on MUBI and to buy/rent on Prime Video.

“Wicked,” adapted from the hit Broadway show, is the first half of the story of what happened before Dorothy dropped into Oz. Actresses Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande are nominated along with Editing, Original Score, Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling. Available to buy/rent on Prime Video and it will eventually stream on Peacock.

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Granger’s review of “The Brutalist” (A-24)

 

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” is 3 1/2 hours long with an intermission, making it the first film to have an interval since “Gandhi” (1982).

It’s a compelling immigrant tale with Oscar nominee Adrien Brody delivering one of the best performances of the year as Lazlo Toth, a renowned Hungarian Jewish architect whose vulnerability leads to addiction.

His tale begins in 1947, as traumatized Lazlo arrives on Ellis Island, having survived Nazi incarceration at Buchenwald. An anonymous, penniless Holocaust survivor, he’s been separated from his beloved wife Erzebet (Oscar nominee Felicity Jones), who is stuck in Budapest with their young niece, Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy).

Making his way to Philadelphia, Lazlo is given a cot in the back of a furniture store run his cousin (Alessandro Nivola) and his cynical Catholic wife (Emma Laird).

One day, they’re commissioned by Harry (Joe Alwyn) and his sister Maggie (Stacy Martin) to renovate an ornate study in a palatial mansion in nearby Doylestown as a surprise for their father, millionaire Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Oscar nominee Guy Pearce).

When Lazlo transforms it into a minimalist Bauhaus masterpiece, Harrison is – at first – shocked but he soon comes to admire its discreet beauty, commissioning him to design a vast hilltop community center. “I find our conversations intellectually stimulating,” Harrison explains, inviting Lazlo to move into his guest house.

The second half begins in 1953 during the massive building’s construction when Harrison arranges for Erzebet and Zsofia to emigrate and join Lazlo. But their feisty independence soon irks the autocratic Van Burens and erupts into conflict.

Credit Oscar-nominated cinematographer Lol Crawley for the jaw-droppingly, almost mythical sequence, a visual allegory in which anguished Lazlo and nefarious Harrison visit Italy’s famed Carrara white marble quarry where Michelangelo carved the Pieta.

Co-writing with his partner, Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold, Oscar-nominated director Corbet seems to have fashioned visionary, perfectionist Lazlo after Howard Roark in Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead,” as he sacrifices everything to bring Brutalist architecture to his adopted American home.

The film’s audacious themes cover individualism vs. capitalism, creativity vs. compromise, and immigration vs. assimilation – citing Israel as the Jews’ homeland – closing with an epilogue about an architectural aesthetic surreptitiously reverberating from the past.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 1o 10, “The Brutalist” is an electrifying, epic 8, playing in theaters.

Susan Granger’s review of “Lee” (Roadside Attractions)

 

Kate Winslet devoted nearly a decade to bringing her passion project “Lee,” the story of Lee Miller, a hedonistic high-fashion-model-turned-war correspondent, to the screen – for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.

“So many people don’t know who Lee Miller was, have never heard of her, yet will have looked at the images she took that informed them in some way about what happened during World War II,” Winslet notes. “She was an American woman who went to war to document the truth and to bear witness to Nazi atrocities.”

After Miller’s ‘accidental’ son, Antony Penrose, gave her complete access to his estranged mother’s archive, Winslet developed the script with Liz Hannah, Marion Hume & John Collee, chose cinematographer Ellen Duras as director, and bankrolled the film herself when necessary.

Using the framing device of being ‘interviewed,’ Miller’s story begins in 1937 in the south of France, where – realizing that her modelling days were numbered – she turned to photography, became the audacious, bare-breasted muse of Dada artist Man Ray and eventually married British Surrealist Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgard), who recruited artists for a ‘camouflage’ unit.

When Hitler’s forces invaded France, Miller moved to London, where she convinced British Vogue editor Audrey Winters (Andrea Riseborough) to use the ‘solarized’ pictures she took with her Rolleiflex and dispatched from the war zone, often working with Life photojournalist David Scherman (Andy Samberg).

(Solarization is a process in which the background of a portrait is overexposed to outline the head with a black shadow.)

They arrived at Buchenwald in General Patton’s wake and were among the first to document the depravity at Dachau. In Munich, they wrangled entrance to Hitler’s private apartment on the Prinzregentenplatz, where Scherman photographed Miller nude the Fuhrer’s bathtub.

Problem is: the episodic narrative thread tends to be awkward and confusing – glossing over or omitting salient details about Miller’s alcoholism, chain-smoking, promiscuous sexuality, insatiable desire for excitement, and bohemian fondness for macabre visual images.

Yet Kate Winslet’s nuanced performance is arresting and compelling, particularly when she focuses on Lee Miller’s fear of fascism.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Lee” is a poignant, visually searing 6, streaming on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime and Hulu.

Susan Granger’s review of “September 5” (Paramount Pictures)

 

On September 5,1972, Palestinian terrorists, part of a group known as Black Sepyember, infiltrated the Olympic Village in Munich, killing two Israeli athletes and taking nine others hostage.

Writer/director Tim Fehlbaum’s “September 5” is a tense journalism thriller, chronicling how news of that that atrocity reached the rest of the world.

Since ABC Sports was broadcasting the Games, utilizing their link to the newly launched space satellite, its bleary-eyed crew were on-site and among the first to hear gunfire. As they scrambled to get into position to ‘cover’ this major story, logistics became their primary concern.

Alerted by ambitious young producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) and network executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), “Wide World of Sports” anchorman Jim McKay, who was scheduled to take that day off, immediately started to deliver on-camera updates, augmented by off-camera observations by Middle East expert, then 34-year-old Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker).

Maneuvering inside the newsroom during the 17-hour ordeal are operations manager Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), an anguished Jewish New Yorker whose family was devastated by the Holocaust; Jacques Lesgards, a French Algerian Arab; and local ‘hire’ Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), their only German translator.

Gebhardt was keenly aware of the significance of Germany’s hosting the Olympics since the previous Berlin games in 1936 were presided over by Adolf Hitler.

Co-scripting with Moritz Binder, Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum takes a deep dive into the dynamics of media ethics since ABC’s live television coverage was informing both the terrorists and the hostages’ families what West German authorities were doing/not doing to alleviate the situation.

Credit cinematographer Markus Forderer and editor Hansjorg Weissbrich for achieving astonishing authenticity by interweaving archival news footage. Their reportage of the Munich crisis won ABC Sports 29 Emmys and led Arledge to eventually become President of ABC News.

Riveting and relevant, the message of this film resonates with the ongoing conflict after Hamas’s brutal October 7^th 2023 massacre of civilians at an Israeli music festival.

FYI: Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” (2005) focused on Israel’s subsequent mission to wreak revenge on those responsible for the Olympic carnage.

In German and English, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “September 5” is an enthralling 8, playing in theaters.

Susan Granger’s review of “Emilia Perez” (Netflix)

 

If you’re looking for something truly different, watch French filmmaker Jacques Audiard’s daring operatic drama “Emilia Perez.”

Set against the brutality of Mexico City’s drug cartels, it’s the story of Juan ‘Manitas’ Del Monte, a swarthy, cigar-smoking, middle-aged kingpin – married with two young children – who yearns to be a woman.

To achieve that end, he hires Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldana), an overworked, overlooked criminal defense attorney, to discreetly arrange his highly risky gender reassignment surgery in Switzerland, eventually emerging as the titular Emilia Perez (Karla Sofia Gascon), leaving his angry yet adoring wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) to believe he’s dead.

Together, Emilia and Rita form a nonprofit charity with the goal of improving the lives of Latin American women whose worlds have been destroyed by narco violence. Among them is Epifania (Adriana Paz), who becomes Emilia’s paramour.

Complications arise when benevolent Emilia – now a justice-seeking philanthropist – demands that Rita arrange a reunion with Jessi and their children. Claiming to be the Del Monte children’s rich ‘auntie,’ doting Emilia tries to intimidate petulant Jessi, who has since reunited with her longtime lover, Gustavo Brun (Edgar Ramiriz).

Hefty, transgender Spanish actress Karla Sofia Gascon brings a sincere, melodramatic flair to a complex dual performance – involving transition, transformation and rebirth – while Zoe Saldana (“Avatar,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Lioness”) once again demonstrates her versatility.

Working with cinematographer Paul Guilhaume, writer/director Jacques Audiard notes that his libretto was inspired by a character in a chapter in Boris Razon’s 2018 novel “Ecoute” (“Listen”) about a ruthless, hyper-macho drug trafficker who asks a lawyer for logistical help to transition into a woman.

Composed by Clement Ducol and Camille Dalmais, the musical numbers are brief and bizarre, beginning with “El Alegato” (“The Plea”) to chanting surgery-based lyrics in a Bangkok clinic – referring to “mammaplasty,” “vaginoplasty” and “laryngoplasty”- and proceeding onto Selena Gomez’s pop ballad “Mi Camino” (“My Path”), while Zoe Saldana wraps up with “El Mal” (“The Evil”).

In Spanish with English subtitles, “Emilia Perez” is a unique, provocative, compassionate 8, streaming on Netflix.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Last Showgirl”  (Roadside Attractions)

 

After years of being dismissed as just a bodacious “Baywatch” babe, Pamela Anderson proves she’s a sensitive, discerning actress in Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl” with perceptive Jamie Lee Curtis as her best friend.

This poignant character study revolves around 57-year-old Shelly (Anderson), who has spent more than 30 years as a feather-fanned, rhinestone-studded dancer in a gaudy Las Vegas “tits and feathers” extravaganza called “Le Razzle Dazzle.”

Shelly views herself as an artist and is inordinately proud of this tacky nudie venue, comparing it to the renowned Lido in Paris. But her world goes into a tailspin when the stage manager Eddie (Dave Bautista) tells her that they’re closing in two weeks – to be replaced by a youth-oriented, erotic circus.

When her younger cohorts – Jodie (Kieran Shipka) and Marianne (Brenda Song) – start auditioning for work elsewhere, Shelly discovers to her dismay that her days in the chorus line are over. She has no idea what to do next and begins to wonder if her ‘career’ was worth the sacrifices she made – like neglecting her now-grown, estranged daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd), who aspires to be a photographer.

At Shelly’s side is her brassy best-friend, spray-tanned former showgirl Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who now works as a casino cocktail waitress, often losing ‘shifts’ to fresher faces.

With her breathy, vulnerable Marilyn Monroe-like voice, Pamela Anderson seems to relish removing her makeup and courageously showing her age, while Jamie Lee Curtis’ instinctive grasp of her character is simply sensational.

When director Gia Coppola (“Palo Alto,” “Mainstream”), whose grandfather is Francis Ford Coppola, makes a movie, it’s a family venture. Kate Gersten adapted her stage play into this film script; she’s married to producer Matthew Shire, half-brother to Gia’s cousin Jason Schwartzman, who plays a showgirl casting director. And Gia’s mother, Jacqueline Getty, designed the costumes with Rainy Jacobs.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Last Showgirl” is a melancholy, sympathetic 7, playing in theaters.

Susan Granger’s review of “A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight Pictures)

 

Timothee Chalamet delivers an amazing performance as young Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown,” which chronicles 19-year-old Dylan’s arrival in New York – after hitchhiking from Minnesota in 1961 – and his rapid rise to fame as a folk singer/songwriter, culminating with his dicey choice – four years later – to transition into a rock star.

Dylan’s first stop is a hospital in New Jersey to meet his hero, bedridden Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), suffering from Huntington’s disease, whose other visitor is veteran folksinger Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). After listening to Dylan sing and play his acoustic guitar, they acknowledge his talent and become his mentors.

Thanks to Seeger, Dylan turn out to be an overnight success, managed by Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler) and encouraged by musicologist Alan Lomax (Norbert Leo Butz), who loves his “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin.”

Meanwhile, Dylan moves in with activist/artist Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) at 161 W. Fourth Street in Greenwich Village; she inspires him with ideas for songs. Their liaison lasts until she goes out of town and he hooks up with established folk artist Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), personally and professionally.

(Sylvie stands in for Suze Rotolo; Dylan specifically asked Mangold – who adapted Elijah Wald’s 2015 best-seller “Dylan Goes Electric!” with Jay Cocks – not to use Suze’s real name.)

The climax of the film is a near-riot at the ‘65 Newport Folk Festival because self-absorbed Dylan, despite being the folk genre’s highly-advertised closing act. wanted to acknowledge his artistic evolution by playing new rock ‘n’ roll songs on his recently acquired electric guitar.

FYI: The original title for this film was “Going Electric.”

Displaying incredible mastery of Dylan’s raspy nasal twang – after working with vocal coach Eric Vetro – 28-year-old Chalamet’s impersonation is remarkable; as for his guitar mastery, he studied for five years with Larry Saltzman.

And he’s been endorsed by the 83-year-old Nobel Prize-winning legend who wrote on X: “Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”

Nods also to Boyd Holbrook as supportive Johnny Cash and to production designer Francois Audouy’s meticulous authenticity.

 On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “A Complete Unknown” is a scruffy, scrappy, if sanitized 7, playing in theaters.

 

Susan Granger’s review of “Babygirl” (A24)

 

I really don’t know how to review “Babygirl,” a senseless study of a woman who –- after 19 years of marriage – has never admitted to her husband that she cannot orgasm without kinky S&M role-playing, which is odd since he’s a theater director.

Reminiscent of erotic thrillers like “9 ½ Weeks,” “Fifty Shade of Gray” and “Basic Instinct,” it’s all about sex and power.  As controlling tech C.E.O. Romy Mathis (Kidman) is walking to work in Manhattan one morning, she’s sexually aroused by the sight of a young man calming a ferocious dog, which is obviously a metaphor about the wild, untamed beast within us.

It turns out that he’s Samuel (British actor Harris Dickinson), an impudent intern starting work at Tensile, her warehouse robotics company. Soon they’ve embarked on a spiky, steamy affair, which is particularly risky for her impeccable personal and professional career. But raw, reckless danger is what Romy thrives on.

“I think you like to be told what to do,” 28-year-old Samuel brazenly observes at one of their first workplace meetings. Later, after months of hooking up in hotel rooms with his subservient cougar boss, he notes: “I could make one call and you lose everything.”

These fetish fantasy-fueled sexual encounters are explicit and graphic – a sadomasochistic challenge which is obviously what appealed to bold, adventurous 57-year-old Kidman who – despite previous raunchy roles in “Dead Calm” and “Eyes Wide Shut” – projects an ‘ice maiden’ image which she’s eager to defrost.

While Dutch writer/director Halina Reijn (“Bodies, Bodies, Bodies”) relates the entire psychodrama from Romy’s female perspective, she never delves into why Romy has never confessed her repressed desire for submissive game-playing behavior to her devoted husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas), who – ironically – is currently directing a production of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.”

(That lack of conversation is reminiscent of “Disclaimer” in which Cate Blanchett’s shame-filled character never told her husband she was raped by a young man while on vacation in Italy.)

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Babygirl” is a frustrating 5, playing in theaters.

Susan Granger’s review of “Juror #2” (Warner Bros.)

 

While Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” is a compelling courtroom drama, the even bigger mystery is why Warner Bros. only briefly released it in 50 theaters before it began streaming exclusively on HBO Max.

Did 94 year-old Eastwood know that his latest adult-skewing procedural was primarily meant for streaming? Produced on a frugal budget in the mid-$30 million range, it was obviously never considered a major Oscar contender.

When free-lance writer Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is summoned to jury duty in Savannah, Georgia, he tries to get out of serving by explaining that his wife Allison (Zoey Deutch) is in the third trimester of a high-risk pregnancy.  But the Judge (Amy Aquino) doesn’t consider her condition to be exemption-worthy.

So the trial begins. After a night of drinking and arguing with her boyfriend, James Sythe (Gabriel Basso), Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood) leaves the roadside bar in a rainstorm. Witnesses saw them fighting and remember him chasing her out to the parking lot. Later, her corpse is found on rocks beneath a nearby bridge.

Prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) views James’ culpability as a foregone conclusion and hopes that a ‘guilty’ murder verdict in this domestic violence case will influence her upcoming election as District Attorney.

But James steadfastly claims he’s innocent, instructing his earnest defense lawyer, Eric Resnick (Chris Messina), to refuse Faith’s plea bargain offer.

Meanwhile, recovering alcoholic Justin is confused about the details of his own automobile accident that same night and he confesses to his AA sponsor (Kiefer Sutherland) that he perhaps knows more than he’d like to admit.

Cast as other jurors, J.K. Simmons, Cedric Yarbrough, Adrienne C. Moore, Chikako Fukuyama and Leslie Bibb voice their provocative perspectives.

So whodunit?  Screenwriter Jonathan Abrams and director Eastwood are ambivalent about revealing any more than absolutely necessary about justice and Justin’s moral dilemma, leading to a controversial conclusion.

FYI: Yes, 31 year-old Francesca Eastwood is Clint’s real-life daughter with actress Frances Fisher.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Juror #2” is a sturdy, serviceable 7, streaming on HBO Max.